Photo Caption: Alex James, Colin Utz-Meagher, Joe Pericone and Brittany Trowbridge get ready to take off on their EZ-Tribute on a beach near Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. This was the day they started to ride with their back tires in the Pacific Ocean, said Trowbridge. The boys posed with a stuffed dog, Sadie, in front of mountains towering over Trout Lake in Colorado. Sadie is a dog they are taking along with them and taking pictures with. When they return home, they will give the dog to a little girl, Emma, who is in remission from Leukemia. The boys encountered hills and high summits throughout much of Utah and Colorado.
A little more than a month ago, four Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake friends set off on a cross country journey in memory of their close friend, Eric Zagorda, who died of Leukemia in 2008 at age 22. Armed only with three road bikes and a van full of camping supplies, Alex James, Colin Utz-Meagher, Joe Pericone and Brittany Trowbridge began a close to 4,000-mile trip from California to Boston to raise money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and to share an adventure their late pal would have loved to be a part of.
The group (James, Utz-Meagher and Pericone) had just peddled 1,700 miles on Monday, July 5, and was about to bike out of Colorado. Trowbridge drives the van and meets up with them at different destinations throughout the day.
Usually, the group is up by 7 a.m. and on the road by 9 a.m., biking an average of 65 miles a day through so far very hilly terrain. Now that they’ve passed most of the summits, it will be smooth riding and they hope to clock between 80 and 100 miles a day, said Utz-Meagher. That means
they’ll put their kickstands down for good, in Boston, sometime in early August.
`We kind of took the West slow because we knew it would be more beautiful. From here on out it will be mostly farms, so we’ll just get going and start moving more,` said Utz-Meagher. `We’re loving it but there have definitely
been some tough parts.`
One of the roughest patches was climbing a summit of 11,300-feet.
`That was pretty tough. Usually you only get up a couple hundred feet,` said Utz-Meagher.
The group has squatted at James’ relatives’ homes a few times, where they take advantage of a hot meal, the opportunity to shower and a chance to do laundry. Otherwise, they’ve been seriously roughing it.
`Some days we’ll just pull off to the side of the road, find a dirt path and camp out there. The maps we have tell us where campsites are, so sometimes we stay there for the night. Through Kansas it says you can camp out in city
parks, so that should be interesting,` said Utz-Meagher.
It was at one of these campsites that the group had what Trowbridge calls `one of the most exhilarating times` they’ve had so far. While the moment, which involved silencing a dog and a serial sneezer, was scary at the
time, she said it’s funny to look back on now.
`We were staying at a campground in Lake Tahoe and getting ready for bed when we heard some car alarms going off and people running around screaming. We weren’t too sure what was going on but figured they’d just seen some wild
animal, so we went to our tents and fell asleep pretty quickly,` said Trowbridge. `All of a sudden, we start hearing footsteps getting closer and something sniffing around our tent, so clear and vivid and close. We looked
out and saw a mama bear and her cub. We were trying to stay quiet but we had a dog in the tent, and were trying to keep Joe from sneezing.`
For James, one of his favorite parts so far happened right at the beginning of their trek.
`When we rode across the Golden Gate Bridge, I remember thinking it was just incredible. There were so many people biking and walking and we were just riding way up above the bay and you could see back to downtown San Francisco. In the middle of the bay was a small island with Alcatraz
Prison,` said James. `I’m pretty sure I had goose bumps the whole way across.`
Shortly after his moment of awe, James found himself in a not-so-incredible situation.
`About a week in we were coming out of the mountains in California and going into Nevada when I crashed my bike and had to go to the emergency room to
get my road rash cleaned up. I had to take a week off biking because I wasn’t able to move my arms too well because they were scabbing over,` said James.
His body is now 100 percent bike-worthy, he said, which is lucky for him because he had a 100-mile bike race around Lake Tahoe to complete.
`There were about 3,500 bikers so you were biking with someone the entire way, no matter how fast or slow you were going,` said James, who took on the additional challenge to further benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. `There were some incredible views of the lake. I started at 6 a.m.
and finished around 1:15 p.m.`
While the group all have their own favorite experiences, personally and jointly, they all agree that one of the best parts has been meeting people.
`We’ve met so many cool people. We met a few groups of bikers heading west to east and it’s been kind of cool trading stories. We met some people fundraising for Livestrong and another guy who offered us a place to stay if
we needed it,` said Pericone. `A funny story is, some guy came up to us in Telluride, Colo. and told us if you sound it out slowly, it says ‘to hell you ride.’ Just little encounters like that.`
The group also comes across curious residents in each town they pass through, who go up to them and ask to hear their story after seeing their van with `For a cure` and their blog written on the side.
`People walk up to us and ask what we’re doing. Some have donated right on the spot,` said Pericone.
As the group continues to head east, they’ll have memories of their very special Fourth of July weekend to urge them forward.
`Just this weekend we took a little break and hung out with one of our friends in Boulder, who was also one of Eric’s best friends,` said Utz-Meagher. `It was just great to be able to talk about Eric, the good and bad. We sat around and laughed about the stories we have.`
To keep up with the group’s day-to-day adventures, check out their blog at www.eztribute.wordpress.com
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